Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • The Last Kids on Earth Survival Guide – Max Brallier/Illustrated by Douglas Holgate.

    Harper Collins Australia ISBN: 9780008638177 ISBN 10: 0008638179 Imprint: Farshore Fiction GB $15.99 I have to be honest here. This entire series had completely bypassed me and, certainly, I wasn’t aware of a Netflix series either (but then it wouldn’t fall within my usual viewing range) but I can completely see the appeal of this immediately. This week…

  • The Last Bookwanderer: Pages & Co #6 – Anna James. Illustrations by Marco Guadolupi.

    Harper Collins Australia March 2024 ISBN: 9780008410896 ISBN 10: 0008410895 Imprint: HarperCollins GB RRP: $19.99 Synchronicity has been a theme in my life the last few weeks and reading this was no exception. I started reading it two nights ago, the same day I started listening to David Mitchell’s Unruly on audio in the car. I’d enjoyed one…

  • The Wonder of Small Things (Young Readers edition) – Vince Copley with Lea McInerney

    Harper Collins Australia January 2024 ISBN: 9781460714843 ISBN 10: 1460714849 Imprint: ABC Books RRP: $12.99 Most readers of this blog know that my kids and grandies are Aboriginal – Wiradjuri mob. For my thirty+ years of teaching, I’ve been a learner of cross-cultural knowledge, embedded these perspectives in my teaching programmes and availed myself of every opportunity to…

  • This Book Kills – Ravena Guron

    Harper Collins Australia March 2024 ISBN: 9781803705415 ISBN 10: 1803705418 Imprint: Usborne GB RRP: $19.99 I recently read someone ‘predicting’ that murder mystery for teens/YA was going to be a big new trend this year. I have news for them. It has been for quite a few years now as any of the devotees of Karen McManus, Holly…

  • The Samosa Rebellion – Shanthi Sekaran

    Harper Collins AustraliaNovember 2023 ISBN: 9780063051546 ISBN 10: 0063051540 Imprint: HarperCollins US RRP: $16.99 This author is completely new to me, but by all accounts very well-known and highly thought of in America where she is a novelist and TV writer. This is her first middle-grade book and completely captivated me from the first page. Set in the…

  • Salt Water Therapy

                              Here are four picture books all of which centre on the ocean but with very different purpose, style and execution, each of them truly lovely.   Beach Song – Ros Moriarty. Illustrated by Samantha Campbell Allen & Unwin January 2024 ISBN:9781761180248 Publisher:A&U Children’s Imprint:A & U Children RRP: $24.99 Ros Moriarty comments ‘my emotional wellbeing…

  • Time Travelling with a Tortoise – Ross Welford

    Harper Collins Australia January 2024 ISBN: 9780008544775 ISBN 10: 0008544778 Imprint: HarperCollins GB RRP: $16.99 I have thoroughly enjoyed every single one of Ross Welford’s books that I have read. These adventures are chockful of adventure, humour, heart and a sense of the absurd, and every time I’ve pushed one into a reader’s hands they have come back…

  • Sense and Second-degree Murder – Tirzah Price

    Harper Collins Australia November 2023 Book #2 Jane Austen Murder Mysteries ISBN: 9780062889850 ISBN 10: 0062889850 Imprint: HarperTeen $19.99 Now that I’ve read this one, I’d really like to get hold of #1 because this is a really top-notch, fresh take on detective stories. Of course, young ladies in Regency England did not pursue business, nor study chemistry…

  • The Case of the Fishy Detective (Einstein the Penguin, Book 2) – Iona Rangeley

    Harper Collins Australia October 2023 ISBN: 9780008476014 ISBN 10: 0008476012 Imprint: HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks RRP: $14.99 I thoroughly enjoyed Einstein’s first outing, and enjoyed this second one just as much, particularly as it is often a challenge finding that next book for readers moving on from the easy chapter books to something with a little more substance and length. Ever…

  • Louder! – Kate Asquith

    A Guide to Finding Your Voice and Changing the World Harper Collins Australia August 2023 ISBN:  9780008557232 ISBN 10:  0008557233 Imprint:  Collins GB RRP: $19.99 Young activists have made news often in recent years whether they are agitating for climate change, gun reform, LGBQTI+ rights, equality, immigrants/refugees rights, water, ending poverty, and more. And I…